Drum Corps Bloopers!

[84BDsop]

In 91, at semi's we (Marauders) were going on the field, and setting up, and I noticed the freakin drum line was missing. I was the DM and I was dragging my feet, with the warm up, set up, etc. Then, over the loud speaker..." Drum Major Lane Anthony, is your corps ready?" The drum live comes running there ##### off onto the field. I wait till they get close to there opeing spots, turn around salute, and start the show. I was scared out of my mind that we would have to go with out them. Turned out to be a pretty crappy run... go figure.

That's better than the San Diego show in 05 where Dream didn;t even HAVE their drum line because -- the morning I showed upat the school to pick them up-- I was told their parents (this was a HS line) said they couldn;t go...ON A SHOW DAY???

[HornsUp]

I seem to recall reading a story on this board years ago about a mello soloist coming up to the front, losing his mouthpiece, and immediayely stealing one from the mello next to him in time to do the solo!!

"Years ago" was the 1961 VFW Nationals in Miami. The corps was the undefeated Cavaliers, in finals.

The soloist, on French Horn bugle, was the legendary Chuck Smrz. Mellophones had not yet been invented.

The unwilling mouthpiece donor was Billy Dragland. Bill recently got back into action with the Classic Cavaliers, and I believe was with the CAC this year.

[StuStu]

At a mid0season show in '87, our #5 bass drum ("Mookie") went down in the middle of the show. We saw a video with the bass line crabbing backwards, and all of a sudden the biggest drum disappears. He did a full roll, grabed the drum, had it back in his harness and was playing with one hand and adjusting his shako with the other, all within about six counts. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw BD's spinning bass drums this year.

And I have a rehearsal blooper to tell on myself. We were backing up at high velocity and I had a brain fade that caused me to miscount yard lines. So I pulled out of the form early, backing straight into the snare line. Thankfully, they parted ways to prevent from killing me. In so doing, they incurred the wrath of the drum staff, who stated (I'm paraphrasing here) "If he does that again just run his *ss over!"

Yikes!

[jplattSCV]

In 1991, I was in the SCV pit. We had our 2nd or 3rd show of the year at Diablo Jr College on Concord. This is BD's "home" show. Well its always very windy there at night for that show. I was the pit member that played the first "bomb" of the closer, The Fall of Saigon. Pearl had this stupid concert bass drum stand where the shell just sat on a pedestal. There was nothing secure about it to anchor the drum to the stand. I was pretty excited about our closer that year which was particularly full of percussion. However, when I hit the bass drum it popped up in the air and the 25 mile an hour wind carried it on to the field. And it just kept rolling. It went a good 10 or 15 yards onto the field through a bunch of crawling and running guard and horn members depicting the "war" section. I had to run on and get it before someone ran over it. I remember looking across the pit where the other bombs were still going off and back up at the drum major, who clearly had a look of confusion in his eyes.

I guess that was the only time I technically "took the field".

[FTNK]

In 2005 Capital Regiment had a prop. This has made a lot of people angry and was generally considered a bad thing. Anyway, this hideous abortion called The Sundial was wheeled around the field by two girls, often making up part of the drill. At the end of the opener, the high brass formed a circle with the prop in the center. At the Ankeny, Iowa show, one of the girls somehow fell and the prop rolled on top of her. She was fine but she couldn't get out from under it for a few seconds. In addition, the prop came to a halt, right when it was supposed to be moving across the field and up as the circle formed around it. So at the end of this dark, intense opener, you have a girl struggling, stuck under the prop and marchers improvising drill to avoid it....

In Arkansas, our program coordinator Wayne Dillon was working on the prop on side 2 of the field, thinking he was far enough out of the way to not interfere with rehearsal. Well, the staff in the box must not have realized how far out our drill went, because at the last second I realized that I and the rest of the tuba line were marching directly into the prop. We were blind because it was on our left side. So at the last minute I or someone else yells "Bail!" and we bring our horns down and run to avoid marching right into the ####### prop.

[fholin]

"Years ago" was the 1961 VFW Nationals in Miami. The corps was the undefeated Cavaliers, in finals.

The soloist, on French Horn bugle, was the legendary Chuck Smrz. Mellophones had not yet been invented.

The unwilling mouthpiece donor was Billy Dragland. Bill recently got back into action with the Classic Cavaliers, and I believe was with the CAC this year.

Indeed he did march with the CAC. What surprises me is that he's never told this story: he is never at a loss for words.

He and I marched in the 1957 Cavalier corps. At VFW finals, in Miami, the late Ted Steinohrt had the soprano solo in "Sing, Sing, Sing", and started to fade at the end. Warren Alm (who also marched the CAC show at semis this year) was shadowing him, and faded in so smoothly that you can't hear the transition. In the era of the tic, that could have cost us our first ever national championship.

[Cavie74]

Indeed he did march with the CAC. What surprises me is that he's never told this story: he is never at a loss for words.

He and I marched in the 1957 Cavalier corps. At VFW finals, in Miami, the late Ted Steinohrt had the soprano solo in "Sing, Sing, Sing", and started to fade at the end. Warren Alm (who also marched the CAC show at semis this year) was shadowing him, and faded in so smoothly that you can't hear the transition. In the era of the tic, that could have cost us our first ever national championship.

Bill told a bunch of us that story on the morning of our simifinals performance: Chuck is marching next to Bill and says "Gimme your mouth piece." Bills goes "Huh?" Chuck says "Gimme your bleeping mouthpiece!" so Bill hands it over and Chuck jams it in his horn and strikes it with an open palm to secure it.

[jstdrumn]

Great Posts Guys!!!

[Galen]

Has anybody mentioned the tenor player taking a dive on Finals night in '02 because a guard member didn't watch where she was going while pushing the field drum off the field? Dude went down for about a minute before finally making it back into the show.

He got a nice ovation as I recall.

[hrnguy500]

Has anybody mentioned the tenor player taking a dive on Finals night in '02 because a guard member didn't watch where she was going while pushing the field drum off the field? Dude went down for about a minute before finally making it back into the show.

Yeah I remember that one. I thought with the original post they were going for relatively unknown bloopers. Maybe people don't remember that one though.